This'll be the one Denzel didn't win the Oscar for. His factory-worker Everyman holds up a hospital when the nasty insurance company won't help his dying son. Shades of Dog Day Afternoon, but an astounding cast (Robert Duvall, James Woods, Ray Liotta) can't stop director Nick (son of John) Cassavetes from descending into trite, teary sentimentality.
Influenced by Spinal Tap as much as it is by cannabis, this 1985 mockumentary was the last thing the duo wrote as a team. Supposedly following them as they record their last album, the best parts are the on-the-couch interviews in which Cheech improvises pretentious answers while Chong tries not to laugh. The songs themselves aren't too funny unless you're baked, but then that's the point.
Die Hard director John McTiernan remakes the '70s extreme-sports classic with a sledgehammer where the subtle social comment should be. Chris Klein, the poor man's Keanu, is the Rollerball superstar learning that league-owner Jean Reno has all the morals of a snake. Loud, brash and dumb, though cameos by LL Cool J and Pink might thrill pop completists.
Halle Berry's blubbing Oscar win shouldn't obscure the fact that this is a brave, harrowing film, echoing the intimacy of '70s cinema's heyday. Billy Bob Thornton is uncannily intense as a Death Row prison guard who cracks up when his son Heath Ledger can't handle his job. An odd coupling with convict's wife Berry may or may not redeem him. Inspirational.
Not as bad as they said, until you hit the magic realism. Lasse Hallström is safer on the brief establishing scenes, and Newfoundland is refreshingly unfamiliar Both sadsack Kevin Spacey and closed Judi Dench endure a near-Theban family history in rotten weather. Journalists will savour the local paper.
While serving as a complete visual history of the Manics from their early days as glammed-up rock'n'roll agitators—with Richey-to their currently more statesmanlike demeanour, Forever Delayed also shows how perfectly video has suited their mix of music and protest. Live performance and increasingly sophisticated films and storyboarding are shot through with urgent messages, slogans, cut-and-paste docu footage and literary reference as the hits roll on.
Fascinating, propulsive, inside-out account of southern Santa Monica's badboy "Dogtown" skateboarders, their explosive mid-'70s emergence at the Del Mar Nationals, and their ultimate domination and artistic definition of their sport. Director Stacy Peralta and writer Craig Stecyk, both former skateboarders, provide access and insights, Sean Penn provides narration.
French study of a true-life serial killer who habitually robbed, kidnapped and killed in the south of France during the 1980s. Stefano Cassetti brilliantly captures the unhinged Succo, and there's a steely intelligence throughout, but Cédric Kahn's overly detached approach drains Succo's demonic acts of real terror or impact. That aside, definitely worth investigating.
The celebrated 1960 black comedy/horror that inspired the hit Broadway musical. Dim-witted flower shop assistant Seymour (Jonathan Haze) develops an intelligent plant who demands and receives human flesh for sustenance. Directed by Roger Corman in just two days, it's enjoyably trashy with a notable Jack Nicholson cameo.
